Discrimination against the Karen

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Individual Documents

Title: Recent Incidents in Thaton District
Description: "Karen villages. Wounding; killing; torture; looting; extortion. Minutes of a SLORC meeting and Orders requiring villagers to send workers for bridge and other construction projects..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Recently Received SLORC Orders to Karen Villages
Description: Translations and originals of 9 orders (Jan-April 93) from SLORC officers, most of which are for labour.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1993-07-14
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Refugees from the SLORC Occupation
Description: "This report attempts to give an idea of the situation faced by villagers in the midst of these offensives through interviews with those who have fled their villages, both before and after the occupation by SLORC. It is important to note that if it was only fighting that these people wanted to avoid, they could easily have hidden in the forest during the usually brief period the fighting lasted, then returned after SLORC had occupied the village. The reason these people didn?t do so is clear from their testimonies: it is not fighting which most of them have fled, but the forced labour, arbitrary arrests, looting, extortion and other abuses which they know occur whenever SLORC occupies an area, particularly an area which has not been occupied before. For many of these people this offensive has brought SLORC to their villages for the first time in recent memory. These interviews are only with some of those who have fled their villages so far. While they do not constitute a full chronicle of the situation, they should help give some idea of what villagers are going through in these newly occupied areas. We hope to continue reporting on the situation in these areas as it develops and new information becomes available..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #97-07)
Date of publication: 1997-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Relocations in the Gas Pipeline Area
Description: "In February 1997, 5 villages in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village tract of Ye Pyu Township, Tenasserim Division were forced to move by SLORC: the villages of Mae Taw, Cha Bone, Chaung Phyar, Mae Yaung and Mae Than Taung. These villages lie just 10-15 km. north of the Yadana gas pipeline being built by SLORC's MOGE oil company, French company Total, and American company Unocal. American company Texaco is also beginning work on the Yetagun pipeline in the area. The forced relocations were conducted by SLORC Light Infantry Battalion #273, which is directly responsible for gas pipeline security and is based in Kanbauk, on the pipeline route adjacent to the oil companies' base camp. LIB #273 also provides security for the base camp itself. The gas pipeline is to run just south of the Heinze Basin, a large inlet on the Andaman Sea coast. The 5 relocated villages lie near the coast just north of the mouth of the Heinze Basin,while the pipeline is to come ashore near Hpaungdaw, just south of the mouth of the Heinze Basin. The reason given for the relocations was that there is a 'dacoit' (bandit) group operating along the coast between these 5 villages and Hpaungdaw. Ostensibly to seek out this bandit group and its stash of loot, SLORC troops stormed Mae Taw village, tied up and tortured the village leaders, disrobed, abused and robbed a monk, kept everyone in the village tied up at the monastery for 4 days while they searched and looted every house, then burned 4 houses and said that every villager in the region must move to a village which has an Army camp. They then went to the 4 other villages in the area to do the same, though they found many of the villagers there had already fled after hearing what happened in Mae Taw village. The 5 villages now lie abandoned, the villagers having scattered to the large village of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma (on an island in the Heinze Basin, with a camp of LIB 273) or northward to Ye or Thanbyuzayat..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1997-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Report from Thaton District
Description: "Early 93. Karen men, women, children: Women as village heads (men more likely to be beaten or tortured); General description of oppression. Killing; extortion; looting; shelling of village; forced labour (incl. children) incl. mine-sweeping; forced relocation; torture; killing of child; pillaging; rape of woman carrying baby; shelling of village..." ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1993-03-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Reports from the Karen Provinces
Description: "The following information from several Karen provinces has been received in reports from various offices at the district level. Their reports make it very clear that the SLORC?s claim that it had suspended the offensive against the Karen people in April was utterly false. This report is by no means complete. De Nay Cha, Doo Yaw, Dta Greh, Neh Bu, Hlaing Bwe Townships; Doothatu (Thaton), Kler Lu Htoo) (Nyaunglebin), Taw Oo (Taungoo), Mudraw (Papun) Provinces: forced portering, forced labour in army camps; ill treatment (death after porter duty); economic oppression (expropriation of animals, food, land confiscation etc); shelling of villages not providing; threats of reprisals against villagers if there is fighting in the area; kidnapping and ransoming of elderly villagers; extortion (lists of payments by villagers) leading to abandonment of villages, internal displacement and refugee flows; forced relocation (lists of relocated villages)..." ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1992-09-11
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Road Construction in Pa'an District
Description: "SLORC has been initiating more and more projects nationwide to build hundreds of roads with forced labour, primarily with the idea that more roads mean better military access to the countryside, which in turn means more effective military control over the population. Though in some cases they receive foreign money to build these roads, they prefer to keep the money and order out thousands of villagers to do forced labour for nothing. The same villagers are also forced to pay "fees" for the road construction as though it is for their benefit. Heavy machinery is very rarely used; SLORC prefers to use the manual labour of thousands of villagers..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #96-12)
Date of publication: 1996-03-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The Shelling of Wah Baw Village
Description: "In the morning the celebration started at 8 a.m., and then at 8:45 a.m. the SLORC attacked. They attacked and destroyed all the things. It was #106 Battalion [LIB], deployed in Hla Mine, and #343 Battalion [LIB], deployed in Ye. They combined together to do this operation, about 240 soldiers altogether. They are under Southeast Command [commanded by Maj. Gen. Ket Sein]. We think they arrived outside the village in the early morning, before dawn. We think they left their battalion camps at night. They split into two groups: one group took their place on the hill beside the village, and one group raided the village. At that time we were in the field [the celebration was held in an open field just outside the village, where the villagers had erected a stage]. They just fired, and attacked the village without seeing any enemy there. And they ransacked every house, and they took everything. At the same time we were all running because we heard the shooting, and then the troops on the hill saw that all the people were jumping up and running away, and they shelled into the field, into the crowd. I think the shells were 60 mm. [small mortar], not as strong as 81 mm., because in my experience I have seen 81 and 120 mm., and they are very explosive, very strong. But these shells were not that strong, the vibrations were not as strong. We couldn?t count how many shells! For about one hour they fired, both with their small weapons and their artillery [mortars]..." _Attack on civilians, execution, kneecapping, shooting livestock, looting / destruction of property, porters, Ye-Tavoy railway labour, land confiscation / forced labour for military contracts with foreign companies.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #96-04)
Date of publication: 1996-01-12
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The Situation in Pa'an District
Description: "A small but steady flow of refugees from Pa'an District continue to cross the border into Thailand as living conditions in Pa'an District continue to deteriorate. SLORC is increasingly in control there, and the DKBA (Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army, the Karen group allied to SLORC) is present throughout the area but is increasingly functioning only as an adjunct to SLORC; DKBA troops are now even supervising forced labour on road construction, especially on a new 50-km. road from Pa'an to DKBA headquarters at Myaing Gyi Ngu. The Karen National Liberation Army has recently stepped up its guerrilla activities in the southern part of the District, which is only bringing down even heavier SLORC retaliation on the villagers. People continue to be arbitrarily arrested, tortured and summarily executed by SLORC and the DKBA in the area, either because they have past or suspected connections with the KNLA or simply because the troops want to steal their land and belongings..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #96-17)
Date of publication: 1996-05-15
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC & DKBA in Papun District
Description: "Some of the interviews in this report are with Karen villagers who fled Papun District in northern Karen State to become refugees in Thailand in April and May 1996, and some are with villagers still living in Papun District, some in their villages and some in hiding. Much of this area used to be partly or completely controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU), until it was captured by SLORC in its major 1995 offensive with the help of DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the rival of KNU). After that, these villages started being ordered to move to the DKBA?s headquarters at Khaw Taw (Burmese name Myaing Gyi Ngu, on the Salween River near Ka Ma Maung) as the DKBA attempted to establish a captive civilian support base. Many resisted, and in December 1995 and January 1996, SLORC and DKBA troops gave final orders to about 100 villages to move to Khaw Taw or to SLORC military camps near Papun. Most villagers fled into hiding in the forests or tried to head for the Thai border. (See "Forced Relocation in Papun District", KHRG #95-11, 4/3/96.) As shown by the interviews in this report, SLORC troops in the area conducted several executions and burned some villages as a result..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #96-32)
Date of publication: 1996-08-03
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Abuses in Hlaing Bwe Area
Description: "(Pa'An District). From Dec. 93. Karen villagers: Description by an ethnic Burman of the systematic violation of human rights by SLORC troops, especially of Karen. Forced labour, incl. portering and mine-sweeping; torture; killings; orphans; bulldozing of a village without warning to build a military camp; looting; extortion; economic oppression..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-03-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Activities at Harvest Time
Description: _Papun Dist. Sept-Nov 93. Karen men, women, children: Karen villages and fields being shelled by SLORC. Killing; wounding; economic oppression destruction of the village economy; looting; pillaging; forced labour (road-building, mine-sweeping -- women and children); confiscation of land._
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1993-11-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Activities in Nyaunglebin District
Description: "Incl. Kyauk Kyi Township. Nov-Dec 93. Karen and Burman men, women, children: Forced labour on Buddhist festival; monk preaches at labour site; people forced to join the USDA and go on the rallies; extortion; SLORC profiteering; encouragement of inter-marriage; human mine-sweepers; hostage-taking (child); economic oppression; desertion of villages..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-02-22
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Activities in Toungoo District
Description: _Ya Da Shi Township. Ongoing since 92: Forced labour on fish-pond and other SLORC commercial projects, many deaths; land confiscation; guarding roads; USDA extortion; economic oppression; inhuman treatment._
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Murders in Mergui/Tavoy District
Description: Sept 93. Karen men, women, children: Reprisals; torture; _killing (list); arbitrary detention; extortion incl. ransoming and making Christians pay for Buddhist offerings; forced labour; militia training to Burmans; forced relocation. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced_
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1993-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Karen Villages
Description: _Jan-Dec 93. Sixteen signed and stamped Orders from commanding officers for labour, money, food, summoning the village head, issuing curfew instructions etc. Frequently threatening._
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1994-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Karen Villages: Set 94-D
Description: Translations of 18 Orders accompanied by Burmese originals, dated October 93-March 94, frequently accompanied by threats. Forced relocation; extortion; forced labour ("providing volunteers"). ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1994-08-24
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 94-E
Description: The report includes the direct translations of some SLORC written orders sent to villages in the area of the Ye-Tavoy railway line between Mon State and Tenasserim Division, which is currently being constructed entirely by the slave labour of tens of thousands of Mon, Karen, Tavoyan and Burman villagers (see the related report "The Ye-Tavoy Railway", KHRG 13/4/94). These orders are now months old, but copies of them have only recently been obtained by the Karen Human Rights Group. The work has been ongoing since late 1993, and similar orders are still being issued now. All of the orders were signed by SLORC officers or officials, and in most cases were stamped with the unit stamp. Photocopies of the order documents themselves are available on request. Where necessary, the names of people, villages, and army camps have been blanked out and denoted by ‘xxxx? to protect villagers. Many of the orders end with phrases like "Should you fail to obey it will be your responsibility". The villagers know that this means that should they fail for any reason, SLORC will likely send troops to loot the village, destroy some houses, seize porters, execute villagers, or in some cases shell the village with mortars. Note: While SLORC stands for State Law & Order Restoration Council, it administers locally through State or Divisional LORC, Township LORC, Village Tract LORC and Village LORC. This abbreviation LORC (Law & Order Restoration Council) is used throughout this report.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Set 94-E)
Date of publication: 1994-09-02
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 95-a. Ye-Tavoy Railway, Other Labour, & Extortion
Description: Mon State & Tenasserim Division. May-Dec 94; Forced Labour; Threats of violence; extortion; reprisals; forced relocation. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1995-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 95-B: Newly Occupied Areas, Papun District
Description: "Since December 1994, SLORC has been conducting a widespread offensive west of the Salween River to occupy northern Karen State's Papun District..." See the related reports "SLORC's Northern Karen Offensive", KHRG #95-10, 29/3/95, and "Porters: SLORC's Salween Offensive", KHRG #95-12, 8/4/95]._
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #95-14)
Date of publication: 1995-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 95-D: Ye-Tavoy Railway / Gas Pipeline Area
Description: "This report can be considered as supplementary to "SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 95-C", KHRG #95-15, 2/5/95. Photocopies of the order documents themselves may be enclosed with this report, and if not they are available on request. Villages in the area receive a constant stream of orders and threats such as these. For each order included here, there are hundreds more which have been issued. Many are lost or destroyed, while others are impossible to obtain. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to those who helped us obtain copies of these documents..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #95-17)
Date of publication: 1995-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 95-E: Extortion, Threats, & Censorship
Description: TOPIC SUMMARY: Extortion of cash and goods (#2,3,5-14,17,18,20), extortion of timber (#7,8, 10,11), arrest (#3,15,16), threats to arrest (#1,6,8,21,24), threats to destroy villages (#2,13,19), forced labour (#4,22,23), coverup of a Tatmadaw shooting (#25), attempts to block the Karen Youth Organization (#26-28), restrictions on Mon language education (#29), speech censorship (#30).
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #95-22)
Date of publication: 1995-07-02
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 96-A, Kya In & Kawkareik Area
Description: "Following are the direct translations of SLORC typed and handwritten orders sent to Karen villages in the Kya In and Kawkareik areas of Karen State. All of these orders were signed by SLORC Army (Tatmadaw) officers or SLORC officials, and most of the orders bear the rubber stamps of the issuing military unit. Many of them were copied and sent to many villages. Photocopies of the original orders (with certain details such as village names blacked out) are available on request. Most of the following orders involve demands for forced labour, money, food, building materials, rice confiscation quotas, etc., along with forced relocation orders, threatening demands for village heads to go to the Army camp, and others. Hundreds of such orders are issued every week, so those translated in this set should only be considered a representative sampling. The elders of a village generally receive several such orders every week. Some of the orders mention "voluntary labourers", a SLORC euphemism for forced labour; as the orders make very clear, serious action will be taken if the "volunteers" fail to show. Another common expression is "If you fail, it will be your responsibility". This means you can expect to be arrested and tortured, and it will be your own fault. Action taken against villages for failure to obey such orders often includes arrest, detention and torture of elders, increased forced labour or extortion quotas, troops coming and looting the village, burning houses and food supplies, or shelling the village..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #96-08)
Date of publication: 1996-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC ORDERS TO VILLAGES: SET 96-B, Taungoo District
Description: "Following are the direct translations of SLORC typed and handwritten orders sent to Karen villages in Taungoo District in mid-1995. At that time SLORC was intensifying its "Four Cuts" program in the area, ordering villages to move and burning villages and food supplies in order to cut off all possibility of civilian support for the few Karen resistance forces still remaining in the area. This campaign is still continuing - since January 1996 many more villages have been ordered to move to Army labour camps under threat of death, the flow of goods from Taungoo to villages in the area has been cut off, and hundreds of villagers have been taken as porters and other forced labour (see related KHRG reports). The written orders being used right now are not yet available, but they are doubtless almost identical to those in this report. The following orders are just a small sample of the hundreds issued in the area. All of these orders were signed by SLORC Army (Tatmadaw) officers, and most of the orders bear the rubber stamps of the issuing military unit. Many of them were copied and sent to many villages. Photocopies of the original orders (with certain details such as village names blacked out) are available on request..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG_Set 96-B)(KHRG #96-09)
Date of publication: 1996-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 96-C
Description: Ye-Tavoy Railway, Dooplaya District "This report contains direct translations of several SLORC orders sent to villages in 1995. Orders #1 thru #15 were issued in the Ye-Tavoy railway area and concern railway labour. The Burmese copies of these orders were provided to KHRG by XXXX. Orders #16 and #17 were issued to Karen villages further north in Dooplaya District..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #96-22)
Date of publication: 1996-05-27
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 96-E: Central Karen State
Description: "Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from SLORC Army units to Karen villages in the area south of Kawkareik, in south-central Karen State. Most of them are demands for villages to send forced labourers, while some also demand food and building materials. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend 'meetings' - these meetings at army camps are to dictate forced labour and extortion payment demands, and even though the Camp may be 3 to 5 miles away a 60-year old elder is expected to drop everything and walk there. As a result, many village elders fail to attend them, which only leads to further threats of 'action' against the elders and the village; several examples of this can be seen in this report. To show the effect of such orders, at the end of the report is an account given by a woman who went for the forced labour demanded in Order #4, which turned out to be 6 days in the hot sun planting rubber trees until she had to be carried away semi-unconscious from fever..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #96-30)
Date of publication: 1996-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 96-F_ Central Karen State
Description: "Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from SLORC Army units to Karen villages in the area south of Kawkareik, in south-central Karen State. They include demands for forced labour on roads and at Army camps, extortion money, food, building materials, and intelligence. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend 'meetings' - these meetings at army camps are to dictate forced labour and extortion payment demands, and even though the Camp may be 3 to 5 miles away a 60-year old elder is expected to drop everything and walk there. As a result, many village elders fail to attend them, which only leads to further threats of 'action' against the elders and the village; several examples of this can be seen in this report..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #96-35)
Date of publication: 1996-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 97-B: Central Karen State (Information Update)
Description: "The article is the direct translations of some written orders sent from SLORC Army units to Karen villages in Pa?an District of central Karen State, southeastern Burma. They include demands for villagers to do forced labour as porters, at Army camps and on the Pata - Daw Lan road, demands for food, extortion money, bullock carts and building materials, demands for villagers to provide their rice quotas to the Army and threats against those who fail to comply, and orders issued to villages by the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which is allied with SLORC) demanding supplies. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend ‘meetings? - these meetings at army camps are to dictate forced labour and extortion payment demands, and even though the Camp may be 3 to 5 miles away a 60-year old elder is expected to drop everything and walk there. As a result, many village elders fail to attend them, which only leads to further threats of ‘action? against the elders and the village..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #97-10)
Date of publication: 1997-09-14
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC ORDERS TO VILLAGES: SET 98-A (Information Update)
Description: Pa'an District, Central Karen State The article is the direct translations of some written orders sent from SLORC Army units to Karen villages in southern Pa?an District of central Karen State, southeastern Burma. Though SLORC (State Law & Order Restoration Council) has now changed its name to SPDC (State Peace & Development Council), these orders were issued shortly before the name change. They include demands for villagers to do forced labour as porters and messengers, at Army camps and on the road from Nabu to Pa?an, as well as demands for food, building materials, and extortion money. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend ‘meetings? - these meetings at army camps are to dictate forced labour and extortion payment demands, and even though the Camp may be 3 to 5 miles away a 60-year-old elder is expected to drop everything and walk there. As a result, many village elders fail to attend them, which only leads to further threats of ‘action? against the elders and the village. At the end of this report we have also included the translation of a letter from a villager in central Pa?an District to a KHRG human rights monitor, describing a meeting between SLORC officials and Village-level LORC representatives... "
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #97-10)
Date of publication: 1998-03-01
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Rape in Thaton District
Description: Nov-Dec 92. Karen F, C: rape of woman in bed with her children; looting; killing.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1993-02-01
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Shootings & Arrests of Refugees
Description: Karen State. Aug-Nov 94. Karen Men, women, children. List of people killed, wounded, arrested, disappeared, by SLORC. Killings; wounding; EO; ransoming; looting, pillaging; forced portering; torture; arbitrary detention; extortion; inhuman treatment (beating); forced labour.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #95-02)
Date of publication: 1995-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC Victims in Nyaunglebin District
Description: Shwegin Township, from 11 July 94, Karen, Burman. Men, women, children; Robbery; arbitrary detention; extortion; beating; torture, incl of women; killing; looting; forced labour, incl portering; hostage-taking, incl of child; violence against women; abuse of children.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-09-01
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC/DKBA Activities in Kawkareik Township
Description: SLORC: Killings (Stories #4,5), torture (#2,5,6,12), abuse ofwomen (#2,5, 12), detention (#5), forced labour (#1,2,6,7,12),looting (#1,6), extortion (#1,4,5,9,12), retaliation againstvillagers after soldiers desert (#4,5,9), executions of DKBA(#1,11), threats against Karen refugees (#1);DKBA: Killings (#4,9), torture (#3,8,9,10), abuse of women(#3-5,8,9), detention (#8), forced labour (#3,7,8), looting(#1,4,5,6,8), extortion (#10), threats / actions againstvillagers (#2,3,5,6,8, 9), against Christians (#3,4,5,10),against KNU families (#3-6,8,9,11), against refugees (#1,6,7);GENERAL: Armed monks (#2,3,7), monks against DKBA (#1,2,3,4,9), Buddhist / Christian relations (#1,3,4,9,10), opinion of Buddhist Karen soldier (#10), SLORC control of DKBA (#1,3, 11), Ko Per Kit (#3,12), closure of Karen schools (#1,3), life as a village head (#12).
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #95-23)
Date of publication: 1995-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC/DKBA Activities: Northern Karen Districts
Description: "This report covers some recent events in Papun (Karen name Mudraw), Thaton, and Nyaunglebin (Karen name Kler Lwe Htoo) Districts in the northern half of Karen State and part of Pegu Division. It focusses on the effects on civilian villagers of the ongoing activities and collaboration of SLORC and DKBA - the 'Democratic Karen Buddhist Army', formed in December 1994 by the monk U Thuzana but primarily operating under the orders of SLORC... " Papun District (#P1-P19,N1,T1,T2), Nyaunglebin District (N1), Thaton District (T1,T2), situation in Khaw Taw (K1,T1,T2,P1). SLORC burning villages (P1,P2,P10, P11,T1), DKBA burning villages (P1,P11,P16-P19,T1), SLORC looting/extortion (P1,P2,P9-P13,T1), DKBA looting/extortion (P11,P16,P18,T1,T2), killings (P12,P19,N1,T1), arrest/torture (P1,P3-P5,P10,P11, P13), attempted rape (P2,P5), abuse of women (P1,P2,P4, P5,P10), forced labour (P9,P10,P16,T1,T2), porters/human minesweepers (P2,P3-5, P11,P15,P18). Forced or threatened relocation to Khaw Taw (P1,P9-P11, P16-P18,T2,K1), to other places (P1,P2, P6,P7), DKBA threats/acts against Christians (P10,P11,P15,P17), SLORC / DKBA disputes (T2, K1), SLORC military offensives (P8,P12,N1), new refugees (P9-P19,N1), shooting of a refugee by Thai helicopter (P14-P15), thoughts of refugees on going back to Burma (P9-P19). ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #95-24)
Date of publication: 1995-07-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The SLORC?s Relocation Camp at Bo Ka Hta
Description: "Ler Doh, Kler Lu Htoo (Nyaunglebin) Province. June 92. Karen men, women, children: Forced relocation; SLORC?s use of relocation camp as human shield Forced labour (incl. forced portering); killing; rape; inhuman treatment (sometime resulting in deaths from lack of food or medical treatment), looting; arbitrary detention..." ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1992-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SLORC?s Use of Women Porters
Description: "Late 92. Karen, men, women, children: Forced portering; killing; torture; forced labour (incl. mine-sweeping); use of human shields (porters forced to put on army uniforms and go ahead of the march); use of porters to carry ammunition to the soldiers during fighting; abandonment of wounded porters; gang rape; old women and children used as porters; inhuiman treatment (beating, deprivation of sleep, food, water and medicine); rape; looting; extortion; women and children forced to do mine-sweeping..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1993-02-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages (Set 2000-A)
Description: Papun, Toungoo, Dooplaya & Pa'an Districts "The report includes the direct translations of close to 300 written orders sent from State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Army units and local authorities to villages in Papun, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Pa?an Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma (click here to see the Map). They were issued during the period mid-1998 through December 1999 and have been selected from over 350 such orders. They include orders restricting the movements and activities of villagers, demands for forced labour, support for military operations, extortion of money, food, goods and building materials, and orders summoning village elders to attend ‘meetings? at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply. Many of the orders demanding forced labour were issued well after May 14, 1999, which is when the SPDC leadership claims to have issued a general order to all of their military and administrative units to halt conscription of forced labour under the Villages Act and Towns Act, colonial-era laws which allow authorities to press-gang labour under certain circumstances. In practice, the military and SPDC authorities violate the conditions of these Acts (for example, that only able-bodied and unemployed men be conscripted) in most of their demands, and almost never even make reference to these Acts when demanding forced labour from villages..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #2000-01)
Date of publication: 2000-02-29
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 99-C
Description: Karen and Mon States "The report the direct translations of some written orders sent from SPDC and DKBA Army units and local authorities to villages in Pa?an and Dooplaya Districts of Karen State and Kyaik Mayaw township of Mon State, southeastern Burma. All of them were issued in the period November 1998 - July 1999. They include orders announcing the commencement of a major forced labour canal project in Mon State in April 1999, orders for forced donations by dozens of villages to an Army-organised Buddhist temple festival, demands for village donations to establish an SPDC-recognised school, a letter of resignation which an NLD member in Karen State was forced or coerced to sign, dozens of demands for forced labour of various kinds, demands for money, food and building materials, and orders issued by the DKBA in Pa?an District. There are also orders summoning village elders to attend ‘meetings? at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #99-06)
Date of publication: 1999-08-04
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 2001-A
Description: Papun, Pa?an, Thaton, Nyaunglebin, Toungoo, & Dooplaya Districts.This report presents direct translations of over 500 order documents and letters sent to villages by SPDC military units and authorities from late 1999 through January 2001. Over 300 of them contain demands for forced labour, negating the SPDC?s claims to have put a stop to the practice. Others were used to restrict the movements and activities of villagers, demand crop quotas, extortion money, food and building materials without payment, and order villagers to cooperate with SPDC occupation troops in several different ways. Many of them threaten to arrest and detain village elders, shell villages with mortar fire, shoot villagers, or pillage, burn or relocate villages if they fail to comply. This report, our longest in almost 10 years of human rights documentation, is part of KHRG?s ongoing project to translate and publish these orders as evidence(previous sets can be seen in "SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 2000-B" and other earlier reports); even as it went to print, we had already obtained over 300 newer order documents which we are currently processing for upcoming release.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #2001-02)
Date of publication: 2001-05-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-A
Description: Pa'an, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Papun Districts "Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from SPDC Army units and local authorities to Karen villages in Pa?an, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Papun Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma. They include orders for villages to move, threats that villages helping SPDC Army deserters or contacting resistance groups will be severely punished, demands for villagers to do forced labour as porters, messengers, road labourers, at Army camps and other forms of forced labour, as well as demands for food, building materials, and extortion money. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend ‘meetings? at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #99-0)
Date of publication: 1999-02-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-B: Thaton and Pa'an Districts
Description: "Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from SPDC and DKBA Army units and local authorities to Karen villages in Thaton and Pa?an Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma. All of them were issued in the period September 1998 - March 1999. They include orders restricting the movement of villagers, demands for forced labour, money, food and materials, a DKBA notification about landmine operations in Pa?an District, an SPDC letter about education of children in the village, and even a letter from an SPDC officer to village elders reminiscing about his time in their village and apologising for the things he did ‘under orders?. Many of them simply summon village elders to attend ‘meetings? at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #99-03)
Date of publication: 1999-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Starving Them Out: Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District
Description: "This report consists of an Introduction and Executive Summary, followed by a detailed analysis of the situation supported by quotes from interviews and excerpts from SPDC order documents sent to villages in the region. As mentioned above, an Annex to this report containing the full text of the remaining interviews can be seen by following the link from the table of contents or from KHRG upon approved request..." Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2000-02)
Date of publication: 2000-03-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Statement of Naw Mya Thaung
Description: Shwegung Township. Karen women, children: mass gang rape; (including of children and old women; killing; beating of a monk; looting; pillaging (destroying property and burning crops)in a Karen village, which was subsequently abandoned.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1992-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: A strategy of subjugation: The Situation in Ler Mu Lah Township, Tenasserim Division
Description: "This report aims to provide an update on the situation in Tenasserim Division, Burma?s southernmost region. It is based primarily on interviews from Ler Mu Lah township in central Tenasserim Division, but also gives an overview of some background and developments in other parts of the Division. At the end of the report two maps are included: Map 1 showing the entire Division, and Map 2 showing the northern part of Tenasserim Division and the southern part of Karen State?s Dooplaya District. Many of the villages mentioned in the report and the interviews can be found on Map 1, while Map 2 includes some of the sites mentioned in relation to flows of refugees and their forced repatriation..." An update on the situation in central Tenasserim Division since the Burmese junta?s mass offensive to capture the area in 1997. Unable to gain complete control of the region because of the rugged jungle, harassment by resistance forces and the staunch non-cooperation of the villagers, the SPDC regime has gradually flooded the area with 36 Battalions which have forced many villages into relocation sites where the villagers are used as forced labour to push more military roads into remote areas. Thousands continue to hide in the forests despite being hunted and having their food supplies destroyed by SPDC patrols. They have little choice, though, because if they flee to the Thai border they encounter the Thai Army 9th Division, which continues to force refugees back into Burma at gunpoint." Additional keywords: Tanintharyi, Burman, Mon, Karen, Tayoyan, road building, free-fire zones, destruction of villages, resistance groups, extortions, internal displacement, refoulement, forced repatriation, killing, torture, shooting, restrictions on movement, beating to death, shortage of food, 9th Division (Thai Army). ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2001-04)
Date of publication: 2001-12-21
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Strengthening the Grip on Dooplaya (Information Update)
Description: In early 1997, the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military junta ruling Burma mounted a major offensive against the Karen National Union (KNU) and succeeded in capturing and occupying most of the remainder of Dooplaya District in central Karen State. Since that time the SLORC has changed its name to the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), but its occupation troops have continued to strengthen their control over the rural Karen villagers who live in the region. This report provides an update on the current situation for villagers in Dooplaya?s farming communities under the SPDC occupation and for some of those who have attempted to flee to Thailand. It looks closely at the difficulties currently faced by the Dta La Ku, a Karen religious minority who have been targetted for persecution by armies on all sides of the conflict but who are almost completely ignored by the outside world, and at the formation of a new Army in the Dooplaya region: the "Nyein Chan Yay A?Pway", or "Peace Force", who call themselves the "Karen Peace Army" in English and are working closely with the SPDC regime. For further background on the 1997 offensive in Dooplaya and its immediate aftermath, see the previously released reports "Refugees from the SLORC Occupation" (KHRG #97-07, 25/5/97) and "Clampdown in Southern Dooplaya" (KHRG #97-11, 18/11/97). "Developments in the SPDC Occupation of Dooplaya District..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #98-05)
Date of publication: 1998-06-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Suu Kyi's release covers up Dooplaya offensive; forced labour and forced recruitment; persecution of Muslims
Description: "This Commentary looks at the direct relation between political events in Rangoon and the mass forced relocations in Dooplaya district, the continued killings of internally displaced villagers in northern Karen State, and the resurgence of forced labour since the departure of the International Labour Organisation investigators. It concludes that the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC-NLD 'talks' have been used as smokescreens so that military repression can be increased throughout the country, and that the international community must demand an end to the killings and massive human rights abuses before assigning any relevance whatsoever to the Rangoon talks. The plight of Burma's Muslim communities is also discussed, as the SPDC shows signs of wanting to take advantage of global anti-Muslim sentiment to launch new pogroms and restrictions against this already grossly persecuted population. "
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Commentaries (KHRG #2002-C1)
Date of publication: 2002-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Tenasserim Division: Forced Relocation and Forced Labour (Information Update)
Description: "SLORC's campaign of forced relocations and forced-labour road building in the Palauk-Palaw, Mergui and Tenasserim regions, which began in September 1996, is now being accelerated. [Note: Mergui is known in Burmese as Meik and in Karen as Blih; Tenasserim is known is Burmese as Taninthari. Both are towns in southern Tenasserim Division. Mergui is on the Andaman Sea coast about 200 km. south of Tavoy, and Tenasserim is on the southern Tenasserim River, 50 km. south of Mergui and 20 km. inland. Palauk and Palaw are smaller towns on the Tavoy-Mergui road, 100 and 140 km. south of Tavoy respectively]. Almost every village between the Tavoy-Mergui-Kawthaung car road in the west and the Tenasserim River in the east, from Palauk in the north to Tenasserim town in the south has been ordered to move one or more times between September 1996 and January 1997. The area measures about 120 km. north-south and 30 km. east-west. At least 35-40 villages, ranging in size from 20-150 households, have been affected. The area is almost entirely populated by Karen, with some Burman villages along the coastal road and the coastal reaches of main rivers. Almost all the villages ordered to move are Karen, but the people of several Burman villages have been issued orders that all families must move into the centre of their village..." ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1997-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Testimony of a Karen Political Prisoner
Description: "The following account was given by a Karen political prisoner who was released from Bassein Prison in the Irrawaddy Delta in June 1994. He was not arrested in the Delta and it is unclear why they sent him there, but most of the political prisoners in that prison are Karen church and community leaders who were arrested after an armed Karen uprising failed in the Delta in October 1991. Since then, SIORC has maintained a reign of absolute terror over Karen villages in the Delta, completely out of sight of the world community. Many of the prisoners he was with are probably presumed dead by their own families after disappearing 2 or 3 years ago in the hands of SLORC troops..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-08-25
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Thaton District: SPDC using violence against villagers to consolidate control
Description: Information from KHRG researchers in Thaton District, which spans the border of northern Mon State and Karen State. SPDC troops already have a relatively strong hold on the area, but they have been intimidating and torturing villagers in an effort to wipe out any remaining support for the Karen resistance, and forcing villagers to join militia-like SPDC paramilitary groups.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update #2001-U2)
Date of publication: 2001-03-20
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Torture of Karen Women by SLORC
Description: Latter half of 92. Karen F: torture; looting; forced labour; extortion; killing; pillaging (burning of houses); details of torture
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1993-02-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Total Denial - A Report on the Yadana Pipeline Project in Burma
Description: "?Total Denial? catalogues the systematic human rights abuses and environmental degradation perpetrated by SLORC as the regime seeks to consolidate its power base in the gas pipeline region. Further, the report shows that investment in projects such as the Yadana pipeline not only gives tacit approval and support to the repressive SLORC junta but also exacerbates the grave human rights and environmental problems in Burma.... The research indicates that gross human rights violations, including summary executions, torture, forced labor and forced relocations, have occurred as a result of natural gas development projects funded by European and North American corporations. In addition to condemning transnational corporate complicity with the SLORC regime, the report also presents the perspectives of those most directly impacted by the foreign investment who for too long have silently endured the abuses meted out by SLORC for the benefit of its foreign corporate partners." ...Additional keywords: environment, human rights violations.
Source/publisher: EarthRights International (ERI) and Southeast Asian Information Network (SAIN)
Date of publication: 1996-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 310.45 KB
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Title: Total Denial Continues - Earth rights abuses along the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines in Burma
Description: "Three Western oil companies -- Total, Premier and Unocal -- bent on exploiting natural gas , entered partnerships with the brutal Burmese military regime. Since the early 1990?s, a terrible drama has been unfolding in Burma. Three western oil companies -- Total, Premier, and Unocal -- entered into partnerships with the brutal Burmese miltary regime to build the Yadana and Yetagun natural gas pipelines. The regime created a highly militarized pipelinecorridor in what had previously been a relatively peaceful area, resulting in violent suppression of dissent, environmental destruction, forced labor and portering, forced relocations, torture, rape, and summary executions. EarthRights International co-founder Ka Hsaw Wa and a team of field staff traveled on both sides of the Thai-Burmese border in the Tenasserim region to document the conditions in the pipeline corridor. In the nearly four years since the release of "Total Denial" (1996), the violence and forced labor in the pipeline region have continued unabated. This report builds on the evidence in "Total Denial" and brings to light several new facets of the tragedy in the Tenasserim region. Keywords:, human rights, environment, forced relocation, internal displacement, foreign investment. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Earthrights International
Date of publication: 2000-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Size: 5.98 MB
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Title: Toungoo District: Information Update
Description: "An update on the situation of villagers in the hills of Toungoo District, where the SPDC has mounted no new offensives but has sent in units of their ?Guerrilla Retaliation? execution squads to ?clear? the villages of suspected KNU sympathisers. Forced labour, especially as porters, continued right through the time of the International Labour Organisation?s visit to Burma in September-October, and the SPDC is also using forced labour to develop Than Daung Gyi for international tourists. As the SPDC repeatedly relocates villages to get more forced labour for road work and portering, people are fleeing into the hills to hide despite the dangers and the desperate lack of food..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update #2002-U1)
Date of publication: 2002-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Uncertainty, Fear and Flight: The Current Human Rights Situation in Eastern Pa?an District
Description: "The Current Human Rights Situation in Eastern Pa'an District" "...Pa?an district forms a large area in the central heartland of Karen State (click here to see a map). Much of the northeastern part of the district used to be under at least partial control of the Karen National Union (KNU), but after troops of the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military junta captured the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw in 1995, they progressively exerted increasing control over the entire eastern part of the district..."
Creator/author: An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #98-08)
Date of publication: 1998-11-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Unwanted and Unprotected: Burmese Refugees in Thailand
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1998-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Update on Karen Refugee Situation (Information Update)
Description: Excerpt from 19 January 1996 Bangkok Post, headlined "SLORC to accept 70,000 refugees": "Burma has agreed to allow over 70,000 of its citizens who have taken refuge in camps along the border to return home. An agreement was reached at yesterday?s meeting in Myawaddy of the Joint Local Thai-Burmese Border Committee, according to Col. Suvit Maen-muan. At the meeting, Col. Suvit and a team of five officials met the team of Lt. Col. Kyaw Hlaing, and the latter accepted a proposal on the return of over 70,000 refugees. A list has been drawn up of over 9,000 refugees at Sho Klo camp in Tha Song Yang who are to be voluntarily repatriated as soon as Burma is ready, Col. Suvit said..." "70,000 means the entire population of Karen refugees registered in all refugee camps in Thailand. This agreement has occurred despite the fact that the latest KNU / SLORC talks broke down and that SLORC is now stepping up military activities in most areas, especially Taungoo and Papun Districts. Most of the refugees would be forced back to Taungoo, Papun, and Pa?an Districts, even though more refugees are arriving from all of these areas right now. In Taungoo and Papun Districts SLORC has been systematically burning crops and villages and forcing villagers into labour camps for months. In Pa?an District SLORC has blocked all flow of food, goods and medicines from towns to the villages, followed by the DKBA going around and confiscating ALL rice, livestock, cooking pots and other necessities they can get their hands on, resulting in people fleeing to the forests to hide in clusters of 1 or 2 families - the situation in all these areas is increasingly desperate (see related KHRG reports and Burma Issues Dec/95 newsletter). Furthermore, upon repatriation these refugees would be screened by SLORC, and any who are seen as having relatives in the KNU would face arrest or execution. Many of the rest would be impounded in forced labour camps. The repatriation would be anything but voluntary..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #96-U1)
Date of publication: 1996-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Wholesale Destruction: The SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate All Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts (Information Update)
Description: "This report is an abridged and illustrated version of the previously released "Wholesale Destruction: The SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate All Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts" (Karen Human Rights Group, February 15, 1998, KHRG #98-01). It consists of a detailed breakdown of the campaign to wipe out the villages, supported by excerpts from KHRG interviews with villagers in the area and newly arrived refugees in Thailand which were conducted in June and December 1997. The information for this report was gathered by KHRG through over 60 interviews with villagers in hiding and refugees, visits to approximately 30 of the destroyed villages and many hiding-places of villagers. An index of the interviews as well as the full texts of most are available on approved request as an annex to the original version of "Wholesale Destruction." Interview numbers are noted in the captions following quotations. The names of all those interviewed have been changed. False names appear in quotation marks. All other names, such as those of the dead, are real. The notation ‘F? or ‘M? indicates gender. Village names listed in the captions are the interviewees? home villages. All are in Papun District, unless listed as ‘Shwegyin township? which is in Nyaunglebin District. Some other details and names have also been omitted or changed for security reasons. For example, in some cases village names are given as X--- or replaced with xxxx and yyyy..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #98-01)
Date of publication: 1998-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The Ye-Tavoy Railway
Description: From Nov 93. Karen, Mon, Burman men, women, children: Forced labour as "development". Up to 30,000 forced labourers, including old people, children and pregnant women are working on a rotating basis on the railway; no food provided; violence against women; abuse of child, economic oppression; break-up of villages; torture; inhuman treatment (beating, deprivation of food, medicine; beating to death; killings; rape; rapes followed by killing of victims; woman gave birth on site, no care, baby died; extortion; burmanisation (violation of ethnic language education rights); land confiscation; destruction of orchards; depletion or abandonment of villages.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
Date of publication: 1994-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Ye-Tavoy Railway Area: an Update
Description: TOPIC SUMMARY: Railway labour (Story #1,2,4-10,12,14,15), abuse of the elderly (#8,9,10,13), abuse of children (#1,4,6,8,10), abuse of women (#1,2,4,6,8,12), rape (#6,12,15), beatings on the railway (#1,2,4-6,8,12,15), other beatings (#1,3,4,5,10,13,15), deaths on the railway (#5,6,8,9,15), other deaths/ killings (#4,11,13,15), extortion (#1,2,6-9,12-14), looting (#1,2,3), land confiscation/ destruction (#1), forced labour for commercial logging (#3), convict labour (#5,15), political prisoners on the railway (#5), prison conditions (#5,15), porters (#1-4,9-11,13), testimony by SLORC soldiers (#4,11), abuse of soldiers (#4,11), natural gas pipeline (#9,13).
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #95-26)
Date of publication: 1995-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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